Campus Safety and Keene Police Department host workshop on emergencies
On Friday, Keene State College Campus Safety partnered with the Keene Police Department to run a faculty and staff emergency response training.
A training program was offered to faculty and staff earlier in the week so they knew what to do in the event of an active shooter or armed intruder on campus. The two-hour session was put together in order to educate those in attendance on the specifics of active shootings. The lecture also taught faculty and staff how to prepare a plan for themselves during such an event.
The Keene Police Department partnered with KSC Campus Safety to bring Lieutenant Shane C. Maxfield to campus to speak at the program. Lieutenant Maxfield is the Special Services Commander with KPD, and has worked to put together an educational program that can benefit any organization who seeks active shooter training. This program has been offered to all types of organizations from factories, work places, schools, grades Pre-K to college, and elderly care facilities.
Lieutenant Maxfield said the purpose of providing this training was to “expose as many faculty and staff as we could get, to [know] how to survive an active shooter incident before the police get there.” LT Maxfield stressed the importance of rehearsing active shooter protocols and individual plans, pushing a message that being prepared is always the best option. “In any endeavor, people perform better if [they’ve] practiced or rehearsed or at least thought about [the varying events] ahead of time.”
Through the years of providing this training, the Special Services team has looked through many case studies of different active shooting events to analyze the best actions to take for an individual’s survival. “Under the crushing stress of [these sorts of] incidents, people are shocked into a fused state, but, people who thought about [their actions] ahead of time or have had [the active shooter training class] are forced to snap out of it a lot faster than everybody else, and I think that saves lives.”
KSC Campus Safety and KPD, along with Lt. Maxfield provided a thorough training to faculty and staff. There will be two more emergency response training times in November.
